Monthly Archives: September 2014

Last week, we wrote a piece about the Jefferson County, Colorado school district and the teacher sick-ins/student walkouts taking place there over what they see as censorship and revisionist history.

To recap, the conservative school board thought that the new AP curriculum developed by the College Board – a private company that produces the AP tests, the SAT and other standardized exams – emphasized a “leftist” view of American history, and wasn’t teaching “American exceptionalism” as the board thought they should be. So, the district had proposed a curriculum review board. This review board was supposed to ensure that U.S. history materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights. Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage. Content pertaining to political and social movements in U.S. history should present balanced and factual treatments of the positions.” They also scrapped the existing teacher pay system, putting in place one where teacher evaluations by the board determined the pay.

The teachers and students had issues with this blatant attempt to censor and rewrite history, as well as the new compensation package, so they acted. The teachers closed two schools by calling in sick one Friday, and the next week, the students began walking out. So, what’s happened since our last post?

The students have had daily walkouts over the last week. Then yesterday, Golden and Jefferson High Schools closed for the day as over three quarters of the teachers had called in sick the night before. A social studies teacher who didn’t take part in the sick-in said about the school board;s proposal: “My feeling is it’s an attack on teachers and public education, and a disregard for the needs of our students. It’s really, really scary to be a teacher in Jefferson County right now,”

The protests have divided the county. The three conservative board members and those who side with them say that the walkouts and sick-ins are a union plot. The union denies any involvement, saying that the protests are strictly a grassroots movement.

Occupy World Writes stands in solidarity with the teachers and students of Jefferson County. We call on the school board to stop their attempt to rewrite history, and to negotiate with the teachers over compensation issues. Those children are our country’s future – they deserve the best education we can give them. Teaching revisionist history is not the way to give them that.

Back in July, we wrote a piece about the democracy movement in Hong Kong. The piece was published the day after 500,000 people took to the streets for reasons that should sound familiar to us all; in many ways, it sounds just like here in the U.S.

Hong Kong has historically had more freedom and more of a democracy than the mainland has; when the British handed over Hong Kong to China back in 1997, preserving Hong Kong’s relative autonomy was one of the promises that China made to the British and to Hong Kong residents. The Chinese furthermore pledged that in 2017, Hong Kong’s citizens would be allowed to democratically elect their top leader for the first time.

You see, in Hong Kong, the candidates for leader are selected by a nominating committee, which consists of corporate representatives and members of the upper class, In other words, just like our system, except that the Chinese are much more honest about the procedure than our political parties are. Non-elected officials get their appointments through patronage, and not the skills they have. Sound familiar to you?

In June, the Chinese government issued a “white paper” claiming “comprehensive jurisdiction” over Hong Kong and that “the high degree of autonomy of [Hong Kong] is not an inherent power, but one that comes solely from the authorization by the central leadership.” Then, in August, the Chinese government stated that although citizens would vote for the chief executive (the head government office in Hong Kong), the candidates would have to be approved by a , special committee. Needless to say, the citizens were not impressed.

Hong Kong, 9-28-14. Photo via Facebook

Last Monday, thousands of students began a week-long boycott of classes at CUHK to protest the government’s decision. Lester Shum of the Federation of Students said in speaking to the demonstrators, ““In the colonial days, the British ruled Hong Kong as if they were a group of refugees and obedient subjects. On August 31, [Beijing’s] decision would allow the central government and [tycoons]to continue to manipulate the election. Isn’t that applying the colonial [approach]to Hong Kong?”

Then, Occupy Central joined the students. The main force behind the July protests, Occupy Central was originally going to launch a “civil disobedience” campaign on October 1, a national holiday celebrating communist China’s founding. But, as the student protests escalated, they decided instead to join the students. On Friday, the protesters peacefully occupied the forecourt (think courtyard) in front of the main government building.

Hong Kong, 9-28-14. Photo via Facebook

On Sunday afternoon, the police moved in. Firing tear gas canisters into the crowd, they were also stopping supporters of the protest from entering the area. The protesters who couldn’t get into the forecourt spread out into the nearby streets, and the confrontations with police spread across the city. As the police crackdown spread, outraged citizens joined the protesters – the unrest spread even more. At this point, the student leaders began referring to the protests as the Umbrella Revolution, as the protesters were using umbrellas not only to keep dry (it rains a lot in Hong Kong this time of year), but as shields against tear gas and pepper spray.

The Chinese central government issued a statement endorsing the police actions, as did Hong Kong’s current chief executive, who’s basically a front for the Beijing government. How this will go over with the protesters remains to be seen; we’re guessing it won’t go over too well.

The right of the people to self-govern is non-negotiable. The right of the people to hold the police responsible for their actions is non-negotiable. We are Hong Kong. We are Michael Brown. We are the 99%.

WE ARE CALLING UPON YOU TO JOIN US, AS WOMEN, IN SOLIDARITY IN THE NAME OF PEACE, OF KOBANÊ, AND AGAINST OUTRIGHT MASSACRE!

Kobanê, one of the three autonomous Kurdish enclaves (part of Rojava, i.e. Western Kurdistan) in Northern Syria, on the border with Turkey, is once again under attack by IS gangs. The Islamic State (IS – formerly known as ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has besieged Kobanê on three separate fronts. And the world has been watching. Kobanê is not a state, its declaration of autonomy is not recognized by the international community and yet people live and die there. This most recent war machine has been unleashed upon us by international actors, as part of a design to reshape the entire region in line with their interests. It is also aided and abetted by the state of Turkey; and, as such, is now the main fire power in the attempt to destroy this autonomous zone set up by Kurdish people and, along with it, hopes for a different form of governance in the region. It is also thus threatening to end the peace process between the government of Turkey and the Kurdish guerrilla forces (the PKK – Kurdistan Workers’ Party).

As war is once again mounting, right on the south of the Turkish border, many have been killed, and thousands have been forced to migrate. But resistance against these attacks also continues with increasing participation, as people flock to defend this ideal of free, autonomous governance. The state of Turkey, on the other hand, has been lobbying internationally for the establishment of a buffer zone where the Kurdish autonomous region currently exists. We want the world to know that Rojava, the Kurdish zone in Northern Syria, is NOT empty land; and that hundreds of thousands of people have NOT left their homes to flee into Turkey. These numbers have been grossly exaggerated by the state of Turkey, in efforts to make the world believe this land is deserted, and can be made into a buffer zone, controlled by international soldiers rather than the people of Rojava. This is yet another attempt to shape the region according to powerful interests.

Moreover, women are once again in the middle of this war; they have been forced out of their homes, and their bodies have been made into battlefields. Women have also taken up arms to defend their families and these lands they call home; and they now call upon each and every one of us to rise up against this atrocity, and to stand with them.

We, women who hear and wish to respond to this call, do so with the awareness that the IS, and the mentality of the international powers that support and have created it pose a direct threat to all of us, to all of our bodies as women anywhere in this world. At the same time, we realize that this attack targets the peace process in Turkey, as well as the ideal of peace in this entire region, and the world at large. Moving the war to the south of the border is no way to peace! A mentality that collaborates with the IS, which sells women in areas it conquers as slaves, is no way to peace! This is why we need to build a world-wide women’s solidarity for a peace in which our voices are heard, for all of our sakes, against this mentality that legitimizes slaughtering and enslaving women!

In order to voice our demand for peace more powerfully, we came together as numerous women’s organisations and women from political parties and mass organisations in Turkey. We are now calling on ALL women’s organisations struggling for peace world-wide to launch actions, organize demonstrations, simultaneously with us on Sunday, September 28 (and if this date is too early, any time before or on October 1) wherever you are located. Whilst so many international scenarios are being played out in the Middle East, geographical distance unfortunately cannot mean being on outside of this war. These attacks target all women, around the world. Hence, wherever you are, please organize some kind of action addressing the UN, the Turkish government, or your own governments! And please let us know at bariskadingirisimi@gmail.com. Help augment our voices against this massacre, against this international plan to vacate Rojava and end all efforts to build peace! Add your strength to ours in this struggle for peace!

EDITORIAL NOTE: This post is republished without edits.
Please consider what YOU can do to support this action.

For the last four years, we’ve been watching an interesting (yet totally predictable) political and economic experiment play out in Kansas. After the 2010 elections, which saw Republicans win super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s race, Governor Sam Brownback put into place the economic and social policies promoted by the evangelical conservative and/or Tea Party movements.

As anybody with half a brain could have predicted, this hasn’t turned out so well. Over just one three month period (from April through June of this year), tax revenues were $334 million short of expectations. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the state’s credit rating. The Kansas Supreme Court found the level of funding for education unconstitutional. This is not a good place for Brownback to be, considering that the Kansas Constitution requires a balanced budget.

How are they addressing this problem of insufficient funds? On Thursday, the Brownback administration claimed to have found an estimated $101 million in savings. Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said the savings include lower costs in healthcare expenses for state employees than was projected and standardizing computer systems across the state government. The Kansas Division of Budget told seven state agencies to evaluate whether they can operate more efficiently; it’s funny how the agencies singled out for this include the Department for Aging and Disability Services, the Department of Health and Environment, the Department for Children and Families and the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. They’re also having a sex toy auction – a what?

Kansas Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley said about the news: “Brownback is so desperate to fill the massive hole in the state budget caused by his reckless income tax cuts that the state of Kansas is now in the porn business.” The double entendre was probably unintentional, but we digress…

Four years ago, Sam Brownback was hailed as a shining star in conservative circles; the poster child of the evangelical right. With his implementation of a God, guns and unfettered free market agenda, he would show the rest of the nation how a state run by those principles was bound to succeed beyond everybody’s wildest dreams, or so the conservative talking heads would lead us to believe.

Instead, Kansas these days is running budget shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and needs to sell sex toys to help pay down its debt. The irony is staggering.

On Friday, September 19, The Guardian reported that a Texas court “has upheld the constitutional right of Texans to photograph strangers as an essential component of freedom of speech – even if those images should happen to be surreptitious “upskirt” pictures of women taken for the purposes of sexual gratification.”

Once again, a court rules in the interest of protecting First Amendment rights of people who would stoop so low as to photograph up a skirt of a woman who ventures into public dressed like – GASP – a woman – over the rights of women to be able to go into public without fear of being sexualized or victimized simply for her choice of clothing.

“While there is a federal law against taking voyeuristic images on federal property, the issue is generally regulated at state level where seemingly outdated rules have prompted occasional controversies. Earlier this year the highest court in Massachusetts ruled that a man who used his mobile phone to take “upskirt” photographs of women riding the Boston subway did not break the state’s secretive photography law because the women were not nude or partially nude. The following day, lawmakers approved a bill criminalising such behaviour,” the article includes.

Seriously people, let’s think about this. When you get in your car and drive, you have an assumed trust that other motorists will follow the same laws you do, and thus, everyone reaches their destination safely. Maybe not always on time, as some motorists need more time to think about those laws or to finish their usage of electronic devices before discontinuing their impeding of traffic, but we digress.

It should be the same when we leave our homes dressed for our day. If a woman chooses to wear a skirt or dress to work, she should not need to worry if someone will photograph up her skirt during her day and images of her be recorded for the benefit of someone else.

We’d like to suggest that any organization, church, group or other such gathering to look for a spot to host events that include women, they refrain from considering Texas as a location option. We believe Massachusetts would be much more worth considering.

We notice there is no news of Texas following the example of Massachusetts by passing a law that bans the reprehensible behavior; we hear crickets. Yet Texas wants us to believe that men are men and women are treated respectfully within its borders. We think it would be more interesting to check the sales of small handheld cameras since the Texan court ruling.

Three years ago, students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania began advocating for their school divesting its billion-dollar endowment out of the largest companies that profit from drilling for and distributing fossil fuels. This was the beginning of a movement that since has spread to over 400 colleges, as well as churches and other organizations. And while the movement hasn’t been an overwhelming success so far, 15 schools have diverted their investments away from the fossil fuel industry.

Back in July, we wrote about the World Council of Churches, a global coalition of 345 churches representing over half a billion Christians, and their decision to pull all their investments out of fossil fuel. Over the last three years, 180 institutions (including philanthropies, religious organizations, pension funds and local governments) along with a number of wealthy investors have pledged to divest their portfolios of fossil fuel company investments and invest in cleaner energy options. in total, the groups pledge to divest $50 billion of investments, and the individuals over a billion dollars more.

On Monday, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an $860 million philanthropic organization run by the heirs to the John D. Rockefeller fortune, announced that it would eliminate its investments in the fossil fuel industry. Steven Heintz, president of the fund, said “We are immediately divesting from coal and tar sands, the most carbon intensive fuels,” He went on to say that the fund would assess how to cut other fossil fuel investments, and invest in renewable energy companies.

What makes this particular divestment big news is that it’s the Rockefeller family, whose fortune came from the oil business. And, while the $50 billion so far isn’t huge in the overall scheme of things, it does represent a trend, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund joining the movement makes for a symbolic victory, if nothing else. Steven Heintz said in an interview; “It’s not a huge economic lever, but it does begin to send financial signals and it brings visibility to the issue. This is like a snowball, and it’s going to get more and more mass as it rolls forward.”

Occupy World Writes applauds the Rockefeller Brothers Fund along with the other organizations and individuals who have taken this step. We hope that others will do the same. The planet will thank them for it.

There’s a lot of things going on this country that bother us, as you’ve probably noticed by now. The defunding and dumbing down of the educational system by our conservative brethren has to be near the top of the list of things that get us going on a rant, though. We did a piece on this earlier this year, as well as touched on it in numerous posts; it’s a subject we could probably write about every day.

The latest target of conservative activists is the new Advanced Placement U.S. history test and its 125-page “framework” of suggested classroom topics. Now, you’d think that this wouldn’t spark controversy; after all, the test and guidelines are produced by the College Board – a private company that produces the AP tests, the SAT and other standardized exams – and not some “big government” agency. So, why the outrage? Because, according to the critics, they aren’t teaching “American exceptionalism.”

The Republican National Committee denounced the new framework, claiming that the program depicts American colonists as “oppressors and exploiters while ignoring the dreamers and innovators who built our country.” Stanley Kurtz wrote in the National Review that the new curriculum “will effectively force American high schools to teach U.S. history from a leftist perspective.

“The origins of the new AP U.S. History framework are closely tied to a movement of left-leaning historians that aims to ‘internationalize’ the teaching of American history. The goal is to ‘end American history as we have known it’ by substituting a more ‘transnational’ narrative for the traditional account.”

In Jefferson County, Colorado, the school district proposed setting up a curriculum review board. The proposal said that the committee would make sure that U.S. history materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights. Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage. Content pertaining to political and social movements in U.S. history should present balanced and factual treatments of the positions.”

This did not go over well with students and teachers at the district schools, who saw the proposal as an attempt to censor what was taught in school as well as teach revisionist history. Last Friday, teachers shut down two high schools for the day by calling in sick. On Monday, 250 students walked out of Evergreen High School. CBS Denver reported that yesterday, “approximately 500 students walked out at Arvada West High School and 400 at Arvada High School. Approximately 300 students walked out at Golden High School and about 200 students went to the school offices in connection with the protest.”

Occupy World Writes stands in solidarity with the students and teachers of Jefferson County. We have to wonder whether the people who are against the framework really think they’re doing our children a favor by having them learn revisionist history instead of what actually happened. A whitewashed version where our founding fathers were epitomes of perfection instead of the flawed human beings they actually were. Teaching about an imaginary dreamscape where free market economics and America are always right, instead of teaching about income inequality, slavery and the darker moments of America’s heritage.

Daesh, which, as the Washington Post points out, is an adapted acronym of their Arabic name – Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham – is similar to another Arabic word – das – which means ‘to trample down’ or ‘crush’, and could therefore be the source of their dislike.

The group hates it so much, in fact, that they have threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone who uses it in public.

‘I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims and Islamists. The Arabs call it ‘Daesh,’ and I will be calling them the ‘Daesh cutthroats.’ (Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister)

Occupy World Writes recommends the use of this term whenever referring to the group which has not only threatened the entire Middle East region, but has trampled on the name of Islam with defiance and disrespect.

This is the opportunity we have as an international community to rally behind that which we have in common – the desire to defeat Daesh – over that which we have for differences. Those matters can be settled at a later time. Setting aside the differences allows us this one chance to get it right, for all our sakes.

Stanley Sturgill, a retired coal miner from Kentucky now suffering from black lung, said at a press conference before the march: “Today I march because I want to behold a brighter future. We have destroyed ourselves. We have destroyed our health and I’m here because our political leaders have failed us. We know together we can build our bright future.”

Bill McKibben of 350.org, who was the originator of the march, said: “The stakes are the future of the planet. And so far, we’ve seen essentially no action from world leaders that matter on this question.”

While the U.S. is claiming that it’s leading the way in climate change, the world spewed more carbon into the atmosphere last year than ever before. Who were the main culprits? China, India and the U.S. And of those three countries, only the U.S. is attending the summit; China and India announced earlier this month that they wouldn’t be attending. Together China and India account for nearly a third of total emissions, and their carbon footprint is growing in contrast to the U.S. and Europe, where it’s basically flat.

We’d like to think that this represents a shift in global awareness in regards to climate change, but we have to temper our optimism. We think Andy Borowitz said it best in his piece about the march: “A climate-change march that organizers claim was the largest on record is nevertheless unlikely to change the minds of idiots, a survey of America’s idiots reveals.” Unfortunately, there still seems to be a lot of idiots out there…

We write a lot about spills and other environmental disasters that happen in the U.S. and Canada, but we don’t report very often on things happening south of the border. However, we ran into a story out of Mexico which, as is typical with our media, isn’t getting half the coverage it should.

On August 7, a pipe either blew out or became unseated, allowing over ten million gallons of toxic wastewater containing sulfuric acid and heavy metals to spill out of a leaching pond at the Buenavista copper mine in Cananea, Sonora – about twenty five miles south of the U.S. border near Nogales, Arizona – into the Bacanuchi River.

As seems to be the case so often in these events, the company who operates the mine (Grupo Mexico; one of the world’s largest copper producers) did not immediately notify government officials of the leak. Only after residents of the area had noticed a reddish color to the water (in some places, it was orange) and a foul smell to it did Grupo Mexico report the spill. By then, the spill had moved into the Sonora River, causing authorities to keep 88 schools closed, as well as shut off the water supply to 20,000 people in seven towns.

The mine offered to provide water to the public, but did not come close to meeting local demand. The amount supplied was barely enough for drinking requirements, and far short of the amount needed for bathing and other such essentials. iIn some places the price of a gallon of water went from $1.50 to more than $9.

This last Friday, Sonoran state authorities said that the mine is still causing pollution and the facility’s owners are blocking the work of investigators probing the accident. At a press conference, Carlos Arias, director of the state civil protection agency, said “As of this moment, the government of Sonora (state) totally breaks off any relationship with the mining company.”

Environmental issues are nothing new for Grupo Mexico. In 2009, Asarco, the American subsidiary of Grupo Mexico, paid the U.S. government $1.9 billion to settle claims for hazardous waste pollution across 19 states; a record settlement at the time. That same year, over 200 serious health hazards at the Buenavista copper processing facilities (the same facilities that had the spill we’re discussing) were reported by a Cananea occupational health and safety (OHS) team.

This whole story is too familiar to us. Once again, we see a large corporation have an accident that has turned into an environmental disaster due to the corporation’s incompetence and/or unwillingness as far as planning for and reacting to the accident goes. When are we going to say enough is enough?